Often pruned into the shape of a meatball

Backlit by the late afternoon sun, the forsythia in the front yard shows its colors.

Forsythia x intermedia (named after English horticulturalist William Forsythe) -- like privet and yew and lilac, overused and misused and often pruned into the shape of a meatball because it is so lovely and forgiving and perfectly attuned to the average gardener's needs and desires -- is an early-flowering shrub in these parts. It "flowers before the leaves," as the above photograph demonstrates.  We'd never heard of the concept before we enrolled in Landscape Architect Patrick Chasse's "Plant Communities" course at Radcliffe Seminars way back when. Patrick -- currently curator of landscape at the Gardner Museum in Boston -- opened our eyes to plant identifying characteristics and associations, and David Attenborough, through his book and TV series The Private Life of Plants, opened our eyes to, well, the private life of plants.

The Mystic River Bridge between Chelsea and Boston, framed in the afternoon sun by the glorious fleur-de-lys-like leafing out of the ancient and often pruned lilacs that grace our front yard, with the salt piles of Eastern Minerals in the middle ground.

Lilacs -- Syringa vulgaris -- on the other hand, leaf out first, with the magnificent panicles of lavender, purple, pink or white flowers appearing later on in the season. Both lilacs and forsythia are members of Oleaceae, the Olive Family. We are fa-mi-ly, my spring-flowering shrubs and me!

Checking our landscape journal from Radcliffe Seminars days, blogged here, we notice that these two botanical harbingers of spring appear earlier or later according to the winter season that came before.  In 1991, they appeared March 31, while three years later, they appeared a bit later, April 11, today's date.  Those who would promote global warming hysteria might be discouraged that spring appears to be arriving later these days.

Another harbinger of spring, a couple -- threesome? -- of cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) announced themselves in the neighborhood the other day. Haven't spotted them yet, but their calls are unmistakable.

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[goomp]

The Mystic River Bridge, rippling blue waters, the salt pile and the shrubs of spring, "Beauty in unexpected places".